2009-07-17

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Pool & Cabanas - 1956Looks like a great place to spend your days tanning while waiting for that big part.

35mm Kodachrome slide transparency.

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Courtyard - 1956With relaxing privacy like this, it's easy to see why it was (and is) popular with the Hollywood A-list. The parking garage on the right is cleverly made to fit in with the units by using the redwood siding motif. Love the slab stepping stones and lush landscaping.

35mm Kodachrome slide

View Looking north from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel - 1956The Art Frost garage building is still there filled with gift shops & souvenir stands. The Victorian buildings to the left are gone — the Hollywood Entertainment museum is now there.

The building and property up on the hill is very interesting. Yamashiro (which means mountain palace) was completed in 1914 by the Bernheimer brothers to house and showcase their collection of Asian antiques and treasures. It is a replica of a palace in the Yamashiro mountains near Kyoto, Japan. Now it is the Yamashiro Restaurant. They boast of having the oldest building in California — an imported pagoda from Japan. (Mission San Juan Capistrano is the oldest native building) History here.

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Cabana Suites - 1956Marilyn Monroe stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt and sources vary for how long and where. She reportedly stayed in Cabana suite 246 overlooking the pool, and posed for a toothpaste (or suntan lotion) commercial (or magazine ad) on the diving board seen here (since removed). In Marilyn’s room there was a full-length mirror that was eventually moved to the hotel manager’s office. A hotel employee was dusting the mirror one day and saw Marilyn staring back at her. Or so the story goes.

35mm Kodachrome.

An early morning mist (smog?) colors the Los Angeles skyline over the Cabanas at the hotel. Not many of the smaller buildings (one-time residences?) seen in this slide are left.